The invention relates to a method for the production and layering of components consisting of individual layers which are punched out, cut out or the like from a material strip, the layers, after being punched out or the like, being pressed back into the material strip again, and to an apparatus for this purpose.
Components, for example for automobiles, such as connecting rods, cams, gearwheels, toothed rings or the like, are produced either by the casting method or by being punched out or cut out from a relatively thick material strip. A precision cutting device of this type is described, for example, in EP 0,183,648.
With reference to a full cam, a known process chain for producing the latter will be described below. First, a blank is separated from a material strip by the punching press. A solid lubricant is applied to this blank. Heating of the blank, preforming and annealing are subsequently carried out.
A solid lubricant is then applied once again, and the semifinished product is preformed and finally ready-formed. Calibration and inductive hardening then take place, after which reaming and chamfering are carried out to obtain the finished cam. The cam is then joined onto a tube, so that a camshaft is produced. The latter is ground. A method of this kind is highly complicated.
Furthermore, DE-A-38 41 205 describes the production of workpieces from metal. Reference is made primarily to the production of a connecting rod, in terms of construction the connecting rod being broken down into individual simple part profiles, and these being produced by precision cutting and, by being layered, being assembled together to form the finished part and connected to one another. This therefore relates to the production of a part of complicated design from different part profiles having different contours.
It is known, for example, from DE 27 50 742, to separate sheet metal parts from a sheet metal band material by means of shears and subsequently to layer them one on top of the other in a stacking device.
Strasser F. "Gewindebohren in sehr kleinen Blechausschnitten in: Werkstatt und Betrieb", ["Screw tapping in very small sheet metal cutouts in: Workshop and Factory"], volume 93, 1960, number 3, page 155, describes perforating and cutting out workpieces in follow-up cuts, said workpieces, after being cut out, not falling downward through the die plate opening, but, instead, being pressed back into the sheet metal strip again by a spring-actuated striking ram.